Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies

The Oduche complex as an analytical construct depicts the contradictions that characterize the weltanschauung of the African postcolonial elite. It is attributable to Professor Damian Opata. But Opata also derived his germinal classification from “Arrow of God,” one of the influential works of Chinua Achebe, easily regarded as the father of African literature. I use the Oduche complex as an analytical template in this paper to study public policy articulation in Africa and the attendant public policy environment. I use Nigeria (the most populous country in the continent) as case study to interrogate the problem of impotence that characterizes public policy in Africa. The study is centrally, critically concerned with the issue of why public policies fail in Nigeria and Africa.